The proliferation of data and/or communication networks drives the development of equipment and procedures for characterizing, analyzing, and/or testing such networks and/or systems or devices coupled thereto. Over time, the development of new network technologies and/or enhanced versions of existing network technologies gives rise to new network capabilities and/or increased network performance. As a result, equipment and/or procedures for characterizing, analyzing, and/or testing networks must evolve accordingly.
To accommodate technological evolution in a manner that increases product lifetime and reduces product development and manufacturing costs, network test equipment may exhibit a modular design. In particular, a variety of field deployable network test devices is modular in nature. For example, a modular test instrument would include a base unit that coupled to a single removable application module. Any given application module may be directed toward performing particular types of network test operations, and application modules may be interchanged as network test requirements vary. Unfortunately, because the base unit couples to only a single application module, this type of test instrument undesirably exhibits limited scalability, as well as limited ability to perform multiple types of network test operations simultaneously. Moreover, repeated swapping or exchange of application modules is inconvenient.
Other types of field deployable network test devices can accommodate multiple application modules simultaneously. However, the number of application modules is undesirably limited to a relatively small number, for example, four or seven, and thus such test equipment unfortunately exhibits limited scalability. A need exists for a highly scalable and extensible network test architecture.
Solutions to these problems have been long sought but prior developments have not taught or suggested any solutions and, thus, solutions to these problems have long eluded those skilled in the art.